Tenants in Common but no contribution

saschia

Hi everyone and thanks in advance for any help offered.
I recently bought a property with a partner (not married) it is the family home. However, 3 months after we have split due to domestic violence. When we purchased the property we did tenants in common and set out on the J0 form and the split was 95% to me & 5% to him. The reason being that I put £130000k deposit. We have £139000k mortgage also.
So the % was worked out that he would pay the mortgage payments to allow for the fact I had put such a large deposit down and I also paid £9k of his debts from the sale of my previous house as part of the condition of the new mortgage. I paid everything else ie council tax and bills etc. 

So now we have separated and had police involvement, but he is saying he wants 5% off me = approximately £14k. He only ever paid 2 mortgage payments and nothing since he left. He had previously written to me various times prior to the split and since that he doesn’t want any of the % it’s 100% mine - now he is turning nasty after realising I do not want him back.

He said he never asked me to pay his debts and it is on a legal document he gets 5% so tough to me. Can this be over ruled somehow when the fixed mortgage ends and I want to take him off the deeds etc? Surely only owning the property for 2 months and not contributing should stand for something. 

[Deleted User]

saschia said:

Hi everyone and thanks in advance for any help offered.
I recently bought a property with a partner (not married) it is the family home. However, 3 months after we have split due to domestic violence. When we purchased the property we did tenants in common and set out on the J0 form and the split was 95% to me & 5% to him. The reason being that I put £130000k deposit. We have £139000k mortgage also.
So the % was worked out that he would pay the mortgage payments to allow for the fact I had put such a large deposit down and I also paid £9k of his debts from the sale of my previous house as part of the condition of the new mortgage. I paid everything else ie council tax and bills etc. 

So now we have separated and had police involvement, but he is saying he wants 5% off me = approximately £14k. He only ever paid 2 mortgage payments and nothing since he left. He had previously written to me various times prior to the split and since that he doesn’t want any of the % it’s 100% mine - now he is turning nasty after realising I do not want him back.

He said he never asked me to pay his debts and it is on a legal document he gets 5% so tough to me. Can this be over ruled somehow when the fixed mortgage ends and I want to take him off the deeds etc? Surely only owning the property for 2 months and not contributing should stand for something. 

The way ownership was set up gives him 5% ownership of the property. Is there also a Deed of Trust in place saying what will happen with the deposit in the event of a relationship breakdown? 

Is there some kind of court order in place to prevent him from being able to enter the property again? 

saschia

I did originally send in a covering letter with the J0 stating my deposit is mine only etc - but the solicitors dealing with the purchase ‘lost it’ even though I have it as screenshot and my ex signed it. There wasn’t any deed of trust done.
no court order in place but he has been arrested and awaiting a court date

emjay2kay

If you'd put that into a Declaration of Trust you'd be fine. As it isn't a Declaration of Trust, it's not really binding on anyone. 

Really though, I would have thought your solicitor would have asked how the deposit was being paid and then set out your options for how your shares in the property would be held. 

I'm not sure how the 95/5 split was agreed. From that letter, it looks like you were trying to say that you hold the first £130,000 of the property and thereafter the remainder is held as tenants in common in equal shares. So if your house sold for £330,000 later on, you'd get your £130,000 back and of the £200,000 left over, you'd get £100,000 each. That's very different to a 95%/5% split of the total value - £313,500 to you and £16,500 to your ex in this example sale.

My point is, I'm not sure how your actual share of the property is so different to what you seem to have intended. I really think you need to go back over the paperwork you got from your solicitor and see what advice you got on holding the property as joint tenants or tenants in common, and then I think you need to run all this passed your solicitor.

[Deleted User]

saschia said:

I did originally send in a covering letter with the J0 stating my deposit is mine only etc - but the solicitors dealing with the purchase ‘lost it’ even though I have it as screenshot and my ex signed it. There wasn’t any deed of trust done.
no court order in place but he has been arrested and awaiting a court date

I've read the covering letter you sent to your solicitor and mathematically it makes no sense nor does it explain how you ended up owning the property as 95/5 tenants in common.  You should contact the solicitor you used when buying the property to clarify things and you should probably redact that covering letter a bit more as it contains too many personal details.

saschia

Hi and thanks for the replies. So the 95/5% split was overall but the covering letter that the solicitor had and now says hasn’t, even though an email trail states differently, was to ensure he would not get any of the deposit I paid, so his 5% would only come into effect after that was deducted. As for the mortgage payments split it was to ensure we would each get back what we paid in which would be half each had we been staying together, this is why I wanted it added as he has now gone and not paying anything for mortgage but will still reap the benefits when come to sell. I hope this makes sense.

saschia

I suppose what my question really is is he has put in letters to me several times since the split he does not want anything from the house and now I don’t want him back he is changing to he is going after his 5% - 5% of nothing he paid into!
would the letters he sent stand up in court and override the J0 

Chandler85

I hate to say this saschia, but the agreement you made was she got 5% of the house, after 2 months or 10 years.  If that how it is split, then that is how it is split.

However, 5% of 269k is 13.5k.  Then lets add that you owe 139k to your mortgage provider, so 5% of the equity would be more realistic, which is £6.5k.

Easier life would be to pay him money and then get rid of him, get him off the mortgage and off the title etc.

Comms69

saschia said:

I did originally send in a covering letter with the J0 stating my deposit is mine only etc - but the solicitors dealing with the purchase ‘lost it’ even though I have it as screenshot and my ex signed it. There wasn’t any deed of trust done.
no court order in place but he has been arrested and awaiting a court date

His arrest and any subsequent action has no bearing on his ownership of the property. The reality is, it's probably cheaper to pay him, than contest this. Given he has a pretty decent chance of winning

Comms69

saschia said:

I suppose what my question really is is he has put in letters to me several times since the split he does not want anything from the house and now I don’t want him back he is changing to he is going after his 5% - 5% of nothing he paid into!
would the letters he sent stand up in court and override the J0 

Perhaps, but the solicitors costs will be more than £14k i bet. In effect you'd argue he gifted it to you, he'd argue he didn't.  

foxy-stoat

I do not think any solicitor in the land will advise you go to court as the costs associated to this will probably be in-excess of the £14K he is after.  Why not make him an offer of £7,000 - he is still winning as he has no debt as you cleared it - I am sure he wasn't complaining that you did at the time.

In order to get his name off the mortgage and deeds is for him to willing sign the transfer of equity form - if he wont do that you will never be able to move on without spending lots of thousands of pounds.

How much did you pay for the house £269,000, he can only ask for 5% of the equity not the amount that the lender owns.....maybe £7,000 was too generous.